![\"REUTERS\/DADO](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/web1_2026-01-16T212754Z_1089854679_RC2K2JA0CN84_RTRMADP_3_XAI-GROK-CALIFORNIA.JPG\")
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REUTERS\/DADO RUVIC\/ILLUSTRATION\/FILE PHOTO<\/p>\n
The xAI and Grok logos are seen in this illustration in February 2025. California Attorney General Robert Bonta today sent a cease-and-desist letter to xAI demanding the company stop the creation and distribution of artificial intelligence-generated nonconsensual sexualized imagery by its Grok chatbot.<\/p>\n
California Attorney General Robert Bonta today sent a cease-and-desist letter to xAI demanding the company stop the creation and distribution of artificial intelligence-generated nonconsensual sexualized imagery by its Grok chatbot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe avalanche of reports detailing this material \u2014 at times depicting women and children engaged in sexual activity \u2014 is shocking and, as my office has determined, potentially illegal,\u201d said Bonta. xAI, which is owned by billionaire Republican megadonor Elon Musk, has come under global scrutiny over the past couple of weeks after Grok began flooding the social media site X with nonconsensual images of women and some minors in revealing clothes and degrading poses.<\/p>\n
Although xAI has since rolled back Grok\u2019s public posting of hyper-realistic sexualized imagery, sometimes called deepfakes, the chatbot privately generates such imagery on demand as of midday Friday U.S. Eastern Time, according to Reuters tests.<\/p>\n
X and xAI did not immediately address questions about the cease-and-desist letter. California\u2019s move adds to the global pressure on Musk\u2019s social media-and-AI empire, which is already under scrutiny in Britain, the European Union, and other jurisdictions, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Earlier Friday, Japanese authorities said they too were probing X over Grok, saying all options were under consideration to prevent the generation of inappropriate images.<\/p>\n
Economic Security Minister Kimi Onoda said officials had requested that X implement immediate improvements but they have yet to receive a response from the company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REUTERS\/DADO RUVIC\/ILLUSTRATION\/FILE PHOTO The xAI and Grok logos are seen in this illustration in February 2025. California Attorney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[387,7,9,8],"class_list":["post-137106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}